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Opinion Domestic Politics BF style

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Political journalist/economist George Megalogenis wrote 2 political books last decade, after doing a lot of digging into history and data in particular for both books.

In 2012 he wrote The Australian Moment looking at politics and the big economic reforms basically starting with Whitlam government's overnight in 1973 slashing tariffs by 25%, opening up Oz to more global competition, and to Rudd's and Gillard's handling of the GFC.

In 2015 he wrote Australia's Second Chance about how Australian history and economic progress went in 50 year cycles of struggle (1788 to 1830's) then boom (1830's to 1888 gold rush and immigration) then struggle again (1890's recession, WWI, great depression and WW II) then a 50 year boom / bust cycle between end of WWII and early 1990's and argues that we are in a 50 year boom cycle having ridden out the GFC unlike other major economies who got hit hard by it, and high young aged immigration and attracting some of the world's brightest, driving grow.

In his 2012 book he looked at events since the 1970s and he said the boom/bust forged institutional and political leadership and a canny populace. He examined how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains of deregulation, and survived the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC to become the last developed nation standing in the 2000s. As a result, whatever happens next, we're as well positioned as any to survive the ongoing rumblings of the GFC.

I remember when he was discussing the 2012 book on Richard Fydler's Conversation program he compared the first 12 years of the 21st century to first 15 of the 20th century. No Australian government between 1901-1915 won back to back elections and several times the government lost confidence in the House of Representatives and governments change. In those first 14 years, there were 11 different administrations and it took WWI and a national government for stability to set in.

Megalogenis on Fydler's show in 2012 said we might have to flip a few governments before we have long term political stability, given the rapid change in the economy and pace of life after only have 3 administrations between 1983 and 2007.

When he came back in 2015 to discuss his 2nd book, the country had its 4th administrations between 2008 and 2015.

Most of the flipping has occurred by politicians infighting than by the populace.

Watching tonight's Nemesis and last week's, I wonder with so much polarisation in politics and society, how many more governments will be flipped in the next 5 to 10 years. We are now into our 7th different administration since November 2007 and who knows if we will or wont get our 8th by early/mid 2025.
 
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I love his explanation.

“I was walking back to my accommodation after Parliament rose at 10pm,” he told Daily Mail.

“While on the phone I sat on the edge of a plant box, fell over, kept talking on the phone, and very animatedly was referring to myself for having fallen over.”
 
I love his explanation.

“I was walking back to my accommodation after Parliament rose at 10pm,” he told Daily Mail.

“While on the phone I sat on the edge of a plant box, fell over, kept talking on the phone, and very animatedly was referring to myself for having fallen over.”

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I love his explanation.

“I was walking back to my accommodation after Parliament rose at 10pm,” he told Daily Mail.

“While on the phone I sat on the edge of a plant box, fell over, kept talking on the phone, and very animatedly was referring to myself for having fallen over.”
It is common knowledge he has issues with alcohol.
 
I love his explanation.

“I was walking back to my accommodation after Parliament rose at 10pm,” he told Daily Mail.

“While on the phone I sat on the edge of a plant box, fell over, kept talking on the phone, and very animatedly was referring to myself for having fallen over.”

My god is that for real? It’s hard to tell what is real and satire anymore…


Sounds like an excuse a 5 yr old would come up with to explain how a cookie got out of the cupboard and into their hands.
 
“While on the phone I sat on the edge of a plant box, fell over, kept talking on the phone, and very animatedly was referring to myself for having fallen over.”


Note that there is actually a seat at the other end of that planter box - missed by the obviously sober Barnaby.
 
Forgot to post this the other day after Nemesis part II was shown and Dutton's back down on stage 3 tax cut whinging.


David Rowe is a farken master at the small details to really show the full picture.



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Episode 3 of Nemesis, I had almost forgotten the endless :poo:show that was the Morrison government. And they didn't even get to Robodebt. :eek:

At least those self-funded retirees on the decks of their yachts were able to keep their franking credits, so there's that.
 

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Don't be lulled into thinking that this is not what most major corporation CEOs are thinking - this guy made the dumb mistake of saying the quiet bit out loud in front of the cameras.



I'm more commenting on how poorly he expressed himself and how unprepared he seemed. He also threw in the towel at the first sign of trouble.
 
I'm more commenting on how poorly he expressed himself and how unprepared he seemed. He also threw in the towel at the first sign of trouble.

He's going on four corners, and doesn't expect that maybe there might be a question about the lack of competition in the Australian market?

What a dingdong. He's paid $13 mill a year. Or was a couple of years ago, it's probably a fair bit higher now.
 
I'm more commenting on how poorly he expressed himself and how unprepared he seemed. He also threw in the towel at the first sign of trouble.
Yeah I get it.

My point, or rather the point of the X post I linked, was that the real issue here is that most CEOs have been media trained and know how to avoid the gotcha questions that the media love. So the story becomes the outlier who doesn't know how to dodge questions rather than the issue

The real issue for us shouldn't be a CEO being caught out but the issue itself - in this case the lack of competition in retailing.

Coles and Woolworths argue that they have plenty of competitors - retail and online - which is true. But they know full well that area competition is what matters which is where their dominance across all suburbs count.

As an example. Take a look at this screen shot I took just then of petrol prices across a large swab of the Adelaide Metro area. Notice how one short stretch of North East road has the lowest petrol prices across the metro area -different petrol retailers owned by different companies (Shell, Mobil, AMPOL, OTR, United, St Agnes Independent) all selling 91 unleaded petrol for around the same price of 179.9 while the rest of the metro area has prices 20-30c/litre higher.


Screenshot 2024-02-19 at 8.43.54 pm.png

Having just one retailer in an area willing to compete on price forces the others in that area to lower prices to match. But companies outside that area keep their prices the same.

When it comes to supermarkets the same concept applies, which is why breaking the duopoly of Coles Woolworths matters.
 
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I'm more commenting on how poorly he expressed himself and how unprepared he seemed. He also threw in the towel at the first sign of trouble.

I think he needs some resilience training.
 

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Opinion Domestic Politics BF style


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